A current trend in medical care is the increasing use of healthcare-related services which are rendered outside the direct supervision of a doctor. Such services may relate directly to a disease, illness or other medical condition of the patient, to drugs or other therapies prescribed for the patient, or to lifestyle or behavior changes intended to benefit the health of the patient. Such services are numerous and diverse. Briefly, examples of such services include developing and implementing therapeutic protocols, implementing strategies to utilize drug therapies, and monitoring health, lifestyle and disease states and conditions, all with the goal of efficiently and effectively enhancing or improving a patient's quality of life and effectively managing healthcare costs. A variety of computer programs have been used for developing protocols, programs and strategies, and monitoring progress in connection with delivery of these services.
Doctors may recommend to their patients to seek out these services. However, doctors may be unaware or not financially motivated or sufficiently interested in providing or recommending the services. Furthermore, doctors are often not in a position to follow up with a patient to ensure that the patient has sought these services, especially when the patient does not see the doctor on a frequent basis. Due to a lack of medical or other professional health training, a patient may be unaware of such services. The patient may also be unable to identify appropriate services, or feel comfortable that he or she has selected an appropriate service. Thus, a patient may often not timely receive the benefit of appropriate supplemental healthcare services.